The Convert

What astonished me most about the final chapters of Tess was Alec D'Uberville's re-emergance in her life.It is almost as if Hardy wished to test Tess once again despite all he has already put her through. It is an extreme blow to the pride, confidence as well as sanity of Tess to be forced to entertain the presence of Alec. In addition, Alec does not leave Tess be despite her please and even asks her to pledge never tempt him. It is almost impossible to imagine the pain which a encounter by one's rapist would be, yet despite it all Tess remains extremely composed, de-sensitized almost by all of the other trials which she has been put through. In addition, the encounter with Alec almost seems to be Tess' final shot at happiness. For after discovering that even her beloved Angel is an extremely flawed man, Alec is brought into the picture as reformed from his old days-but still enamored with her. She is forced to chose between two unhappy situations and now the only question left is that in choosing Angel is she choosing the lesser of two evils?

'Liza-Lu

At the very end when Tess and Angel are spending their last night at Stonehenge, Tess tells him to marry her sister in the event of her death. Up until this point, 'Liza-Lu has played a very insignificant role in the story. She is around a little in the very beginning, then goes to fetch Tess when their mother is ill. Other than these few tidbits, all we really know about this girl is that she has suddenly grown tall and Tess is impressed with her beauty. Tess's wish for their marriage caught me off-guard for this reason--Hardy never really establishes a connection between the two sisters. The way he describes 'Liza-Lu, though, as a "spiritualized image of Tess, slighter than she, but with the same beautiful eyes" serves its part in making her fit better in this place. Her relationship with Angel at this point is never spelled out directly, and only the fact that they were holding hands gives us any clue. My interpretation is that the younger knows of the older sister's wish, she is beginning to get to know Angel Clare, and a relatively happy future may lie in store for them. This seems like a fitting ending, injecting some hope into an otherwise tragic story.

Tess's End

The mind state of unworthiness that is ingrained is Tess is seen up until her very last moments with Angel. Instead of wishing that Angel eternally mourn the loss of his only “love” after she has departed, she only wishes that he take up with her sister, who she sees as “all the best of me without the bad of me” and as “so good and simple and pure.” She wants Angel to have the image of perfection and purity that he always sought, and this comes in the form of her sister. Her reasoning is that, “if she were to become yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us,” but I see it as her giving up her only wish, to be Angel’s one and only love, so that he may be with the woman that he always thought she was. I have conflicted feelings about her last action, as I feel that while her selfless nature is at points commendable, I just wish that in her last moments she had stood up against the numerous injustices brought upon her and demanded something for herself. Tess accepts her fate of death with a peacefulness and understanding that implies she still believes that it is what she deserves, but I only wish she had raged “against the dying of the light” as Dylan Thomas put it.

Stonehenge...the end

The setting in the last few pages of the novel is important because this is where Tess meets her ultimate fate; death. She falls asleep at Stonehenge where she is eventually taken away by the police to the gallows. I think Hardy chose Stonehenge as symbolic scene for his heroine’s demise because Stonehenge’s name actually means hang or gallows, which is how Tess dies. Also, Stonehenge is ancient and in a way a kind of ruins, which is exactly the story of Tess’ family and name D’Urberville. For example, Angel says, Stonehenge is “older than the centuries; older than the D’Urbervilles!” Also, Tess sleepily rests on an “altar” which is a place for sacrifice or a religious ceremony. This is an appropriate place for Tess because her life becomes entwined with sacrifice and society’s view of religion.

Purity of Tess

During class discussion today, when Steph was talking about how Tess has never done anything to deserve what has been done to her - well, it set me to thinking about that. It made me realize how Hardy manages to never place Tess in a situation where she is to blame. You have the early situation with Prince, where before he gets killed, Tess dozes off, so she cannot be blamed for his death. She was up just as late as her parents, and although she was not recovering from a hangover, she must've been just as tired, not to mention she had spent part of the day marching about and dancing with her walking club of other women.

Then with her child, Sorrow. Far too young to be a mother, and not emotionally ready to be a mother, Tess cannot be blamed for the death of her child. While it may have seemed that the infant was healthy enough, it wasn't a child that was planned, it was forced upon Tess and her maternal instinct was all that could exist to encourage her to love the child. Yet it must've been difficult to take care of the physical evidence of her rape; regardless, she does take care of the child and only wishes the best for it.

Both of these are situations with death involved, but those are the two forefront events that come to mind.

But I wonder (and I'm interested in what everyone else has to say), whether there actually are situations that places Tess as the person who is to blame for what has happened to her.

Hardy's Advice

Near the end of chapter XXXIX, where Clare returns home to visit his family, Hardy once again addresses the reader directly. As Clare, having masked his bitterness to his family, sits alone in his room he begins to rave at his absent wife. Hardy juxtaposes his bitterness and resentment with the innocence and love of Tess: "This night the woman of his belittling deprecations was thinking how great and good her husband was." (264). Indeed, even Clare's parents hold on to this idea: "I quite see her. And living in such seclusion...you were her first love?...The perfect woman, you see, was a working woman, not an idler..." (262-263). Ironically, Clare's parents still reinforce his Pauline views on chastity and its connection to morality and purity: "Since she is pure and chaste she would have been refined enough for me." (263). This is nearly too much for Angel, who has to flee the room, knowing that his beautiful wife, though hard working, will never be a refined lady, neither in his eyes nor in the eyes of his family. However, by the end of the chapter, Hardy himself declares that Tess is indeed a fine and virtuous lady. He calls Angel's judgments on Tess limited, and states that Angel cannot see, for "No prophet had told him and he was not prophet enough to tell himself." (265) Here, Hardy becomes the prophet himself, declaring that Tess is as deserving s praise as any woman of the Bible: "Her moral value having to be reckoned not by achievement but by tendency." (265). Hardy shows his tendency for determinism here by holding that morality is not shaped by events (or "achievements") but rather by the way in which one reacts to the events of life that are unfolded before them. Tess, whose life has been a series of unfortunate events, has nonetheless acted with a great tendency towards goodness, virtuosity and love.

Socrates and Tess

I know that this is kind of pushing a connection but hear me out. Socrates holds the belief that it is better to be unjustly harmed than to commit injustice. I think that Hardy must have held a similar belief. As I said in a previous post, Tess' universe is completely unequal when one compares the good and bad events in her life.  The bad events are ones that we as modern day people view as Tess being unjustly harmed (her rape, her marriage falling apart due to her rape).  However, as Tess proves to us, she too feels again and again that she deserves this harm done onto her. Time and again Tess fails to stand up for herself against Angel and even the workman who recognized her from her work at the D'urbervilles, insisting that she is getting the punishment that she deserves.  My theory is that Hardy, who admitted to being in love with his heroin, wanted Tess to be a morally upstanding individual.  He may have done this unintentionally, but Tess definitely is unjustly harmed and never commits any REAL injustice. P.S. The greeks saw rape as a horrible offense against the soul of a woman and the man who commit it was therefore killed. How did it get so turned around as to blame the woman?